HEADLINE, Democracy Now!  JUNE 03, 2024

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele was sworn in for a second term Saturday. El Salvador’s constitution limits presidents to serving just one five-year term, but a 2021 Supreme Court decision allowed the former businessman to run for reelection. Under Bukele’s plan to combat gangs, El Salvador has arrested over 80,000 people without charge. Despite growing condemnation of Bukele’s authoritarian rule, the U.S. sent a high-level delegation led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the inauguration. Also in attendance at Saturday’s inauguration in San Salvador was Argentina’s right-wing libertarian President Javier Milei and Donald Trump Jr.

Meanwhile, protesters gathered outside the Salvadoran Embassy in Washington, D.C., to call out the Biden administration’s recognition of what they called an illegal and unconstitutional second term for Bukele.

Consuelo Gómez: “We know that your government knows of the kidnapping and deaths of our children and families in Bukele’s jails. President Biden, it shames us that your government decided to participate in the inauguration of a new dictator in El Salvador.”